The Family Shadow Box Project

ABSTRACT

Over the past decade, the call for the use of creative approaches in counselor education has continually increased. Creative teaching approaches encourage perspective taking, self-awareness, and openness to new experiences. This column discusses the use of the family shadow box, a master’s-level classroom assignment to assist students in marriage, family, and couples’ courses as they explore influences from their identified families of origin. This creative assignment can be used in both face-to-face and online counseling courses to help students gain awareness and insight on how their early family of origin experiences may impact their work with couples and families.

KEYWORDS:

• Shadow box
• creativity in counselor education
• family of origin
• self-reflection

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).